WSJ What’s News - Harris on Track to Clinch Nomination

Episode Date: July 23, 2024

A.M. Edition for July 23. Vice President Kamala Harris secures the pledged support of a majority of delegates to the Democratic National Convention, and her campaign appears to energize organized labor and big donors. Plus, Google’s talks to buy cybersecurity startup Wiz for $23 billion fall apart. And, more American women are working than ever, but as WSJ economics reporter Rachel Wolfe explains, many say that’s left them with two full-time jobs: managing their households and their careers. Luke Vargas hosts. Sign up for the WSJ’s free What’s News newsletter.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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That's BetterHelp.com. Kamala Harris edges closer to an election showdown with Donald Trump. Plus, Google's talks to acquire cybersecurity startup Wiz fall apart. to acquire cybersecurity startup Wiz fall apart. And we'll look at the double-edged sword that remote work is turning out to be for many women. Moms now have to ask themselves, are you taking on more childcare because you have a more flexible job?

Or did you take a more flexible job because you are already doing most of the childcare? It's Tuesday, July 23rd. I'm Luke Vargas for The Wall Street Journal. And here is the AM edition. It's Tuesday, July 23rd. I'm Luke Vargas for The Wall Street Journal, and here is the AM edition of What's News, the top headlines and business stories moving your world today. After her first full day of campaigning, Vice President Kamala Harris is gliding toward the Democratic nomination. Currently running unopposed, she's now secured the pledged support of a majority of delegates to next month's convention in Chicago, according to a delegate

count by the Associated Press. Yesterday, Harris also won the support of two key labor groups, the 1.8 million-strong American Federation of Teachers and the AFL-CIO, which represents 60 unions and 12.5 million workers. Fundraising totals are also showing momentum after some Democratic contributors had withheld donations in recent weeks. In the 24 hours since President Biden's departure from the race, the Harris campaign, the DNC, and joint fundraising committees raised $81 million, with a separate Democratic super PAC Future Forward announcing a further $150 million in commitments. Biden, who's still recovering from COVID-19, called into a meeting yesterday between Harris and campaign staff to offer his support. Biden is scheduled to return to the White House this afternoon. Well, in addition to opening up their wallets in the presidential race, a number of prominent donors have been targeting

specific causes like abortion rights, one of the strongest issues for Democrats in the election. Journal reporter Juliet Chung says donors including Phoebe Gates, daughter of Bill and Melinda French Gates, and Wendy Schmidt, who's married to former Google CEO Eric Schmidt, are among a new wave of abortion rights backers sparked by the overturning of Roe v. Wade two years ago. For a lot of the donors, the key sort of motive is restoring rights they see as fundamental to women's rights, to their ability to control their bodies, to their ability to control their economic futures.

For some, there is also the additional potential benefit of increasing chances for the Democratic ticket up and down the ballot come November. We know from polling that abortion is a hugely important issue to voters, almost regardless of political party. Recent polling has shown Americans' support for abortion access is at one of the highest levels on record since researchers began tracking it in the 1970s. began tracking it in the 1970s. Google's talks to acquire cybersecurity startup Wiz for $23 billion have fallen apart. In an email to staff viewed by The Wall Street Journal, Wiz CEO Asaf Rapoport said the company would now target an IPO within the next few years and aim to double its annual recurring revenue to

$1 billion within the next year. For Google, the takeover would have been a boost to its cloud computing offering where it lags behind Microsoft and Amazon. Google parent Alphabet is due to report earnings today, with Wall Street analysts expecting the company to post a jump in revenue. And in other news that could move markets today, UPS has agreed to buy Mexican delivery company Estafeta in a deal aimed at expanding its role in Mexico as the trend of near-shoring manufacturing drives more cross-border trade. The price for the acquisition wasn't disclosed, but the deal is expected to close by the end of this year, subject to regulatory approval.

UPS is set to report its second quarter results this morning, as will Coca-Cola, while Visa and Tesla will report after the closing bell. Coming up, remote work has allowed a record number of American women to work, but left many shackled household responsibilities. We've got that story after the break. Summer's here, and you can now get almost anything you need for your sunny days delivered with Uber Eats. What do we mean by almost? Well, you can't get a well-groomed lawn delivered, but you can get a chicken parmesan delivered.

A cabana? That's a no. But a banana? That's a yes. A nice tan? a yes a nice tan sorry nope but a box fan happily yes a day of sunshine no a box of fine wines yes uber eats can definitely get you that get almost almost anything delivered with uber eats order now alcohol and select markets product availability may vary by Regency app for details. More women than ever are part of the American workforce. They now hold a record 79 million jobs, and the share of women in their prime working years who are employed or seeking work recently hit an all-time high of more than 78 percent, thanks in part to a heavy demand for workers and a surge in female entrepreneurs. And although a rise in remote work opportunities after the pandemic is providing more

flexibility for working moms, Journal Economics reporter Rachel Wolff told our Kate Bullivant that many women are finding they're losing ground in the battle to balance their careers and personal lives. The whole idea behind why economists think that there are so many more women in the workforce now is that jobs are more flexible than they were a few years ago, which on its face sounds like a really great thing. And in many ways it is, but it's only great if both parents have flexibility when we're talking about a two parent household, a heterosexual relationship.

So what we're seeing is when moms are the ones with the more flexible jobs, they're the ones who are also responsible for the bulk of the household tasks and the childcare, which had largely already been the case. And so now they're working full time, but also still responsible for those same tasks. Dartmouth College economics professor Claudia Olivetti, who studies this topic extensively, said that moms now have to ask themselves, are you taking on more childcare

because you have a more flexible job? Or did you take a more flexible job because you are already doing most of the childcare? Rachel, flexible work has become much more common for working men and women. So in the case of, we're talking heterosexual couples here, why is the childcare burden falling disproportionately on women? It's complicated. When one parent has the more flexible job, they are de facto the one who has to take on more of these responsibilities. And so in some cases that is the man. There are more dads who are now the ones who are taking on the more flexible jobs that somebody is home for what the kids need too. However, society is still such that more of the

communications from school, from whatever goes to the moms, I spoke to so many families who said that even though the dad is the one home or they're both home, but the dad is the one who's more available, the mom is still getting the sick call out request. The mom is still being asked to sign up to bake muffins and bring napkins for the preschool graduation. And the dad is getting an invitation. Right. So how can this be made easier for women in the U.S.? And how does this compare to what women are experiencing in other countries? So what we see is that women in the U.S. are less likely to be employed than many of their peers abroad. Even though the U.S. has made gains, we still lag behind a lot of other high-income countries.

The U.S. is devoting substantially less public spending to families than other developed countries, and that has a real impact on women especially's ability to work. So we compared it to Japan, where the government put in place what it called womanomics policies a little over a decade ago. And those policies significantly increased the supply of child care. And that helped expand the ranks of women in the workforce. As of May, 83.3% of Japan's prime age women participated in the labor market. Sweden is actually the world's leader among advanced economies at 90% as of the first quarter. As great as it is that more workplaces in the U.S. are trying to be intentional about attracting and retaining women, moms in

particular, we continue to be in a situation like we are now where, yes, it's great that more women are working, but more of them are saying that they're really stretched thin. That was journal economics reporter Rachel Wolff. Rachel, thanks for your time. Thanks so much. And as a number of companies pull back on work from anywhere policies, we want to know whether you've worked remotely, whether that's changed lately, and if you've had any issues along the way. We will be putting your questions to our journal careers team and an expert in corporate mobility policy. So to weigh in, send a voice memo to WNPOD at WSJ.com or leave a voicemail with your name and location at 212-416-4328. And we just might use it on the show.

A Russian court has sentenced Radio Free Europe radio liberty journalist Alsu Kermasheva to six and a half years in prison after the dual U.S.-Russian citizen was convicted in a closed-door trial of disseminating false information about the Russian military. Kermesheva has denied the charges against her through her lawyer and family, and top U.S. officials have called for Kermesheva's release. Though it wasn't reported by Russian media until yesterday, the court's verdict was reached on Friday, the same day as Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich was wrongfully convicted by Russian authorities of spying

and sentenced to 16 years in a high-security penal colony. Gershkovich, who was accredited as a journalist by Russia's foreign ministry when he was detained, was also tried in secret. Russian authorities produced no public evidence to support their allegations, which Gershkovich, the Journal, and the U.S. government have vehemently and repeatedly denied. And that's it for What's News for Tuesday morning. Today's show was produced by Kate Boulivant and Daniel Bach, with supervising producer Christina Rocca, and I'm Luke Vargas for The Wall Street Journal. We will be back tonight with a new show. Until then, thanks for listening.